Although total market penetration of solar into the relevant base of potential customers remains relatively low in the United States, residential and commercial solar installs have enjoyed double digit growth since the mid to late 2000s. Despite this recent success, developments to reduce cost, increase efficiency and improve overall home integration are ongoing and must continue to increase solar's relatively meager market share when compared to grid-based utility power.
To further improve the efficiency of solar panels, mounting systems have been developed that allow for movement of solar panels to maximize sun exposure. Such systems have utilized various means to effect movement of solar panels to track movement of the sun. Such systems, however, may periodically leave the solar panels in a less than ideal configuration, particularly when power is cut-off as may happen in inclement weather. Such configurations may leave the solar panels vulnerable to damage from high winds that frequently occur during inclement weather.
To deal with this problem, some systems have utilized power backup systems that utilize stored energy or require manual intervention to move the solar panels to a safely stowed configuration—typically at zero degrees of inclination (i.e., parallel to the ground). Such systems, however, increase the size, complexity and cost of such systems or require human intervention. Therefore, there exists a need for photovoltaic mounting systems that provide robust and reliable movement control to allow moveable solar panels to be safely stowed in the event that power is lost.